1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to managing multimedia content, and more particularly, to efficiently managing multimedia content stored in a restricted storage space of a multimedia device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital multimedia devices, such as personal video recorders (PVRs), home audio/video (AV) centers, and personal media players (PMPs), which store and play various multimedia content including music, pictures, and moving pictures and include a mass storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD) and a flash memory, are actively being developed. As multimedia compression technologies have been improved, the amount of content which can be stored in a digital multimedia device has increased. Furthermore, since the multimedia devices can share data over a network, an individual can transmit or share multimedia content over the network. Thus, the multimedia devices can store several thousands or several tens of thousands of pieces of content. However, although large capacity storage devices have been developed, the storage capacity is still not sufficient to store various and large pieces of content. Accordingly, it has become gradually difficult for a user to search for desired content.
Therefore, in order to ensure sufficient storage space, the user must search for several thousands or several tens of thousands of pieces of content and delete unimportant or unnecessary content.
However, it is difficult or troublesome to select unimportant content as well as to determine the kinds of content. In particular, this operation is even more difficult in the case of most mobile or home multimedia devices which have input units such as a simple button or a remote controller, instead of a keyboard or a mouse.
FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a related art digital recorder.
As shown in FIG. 1, the general digital recorder includes a storage (HDD) 10, a record/play system 11, and a microcomputer 12, and a memory 13.
In order to manage multimedia content stored in the HDD 10, a deletion recommendation list is displayed such that a user can easily select and delete a recorded program having low importance from the HDD 10 when necessary. When recording and managing last play time information when recording/playing a program, the deletion recommendation list is generated in the order of the last play time.
The microcomputer 12 records and manages the last play time (Last_Play_Time) information in the memory 13 when a program is recorded in the HDD 10 or a recorded program is played.
Hereinafter, a method of managing data in a conventional digital multimedia device will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2.
The microcomputer 12 sets an operation mode of the digital recorder to a data record mode (21), controls the record/play system 11 to process and encode an external input signal to data suitable for recording, and records the data in the HDD 10 (22), according to a request of the user.
The microcomputer 12 continuously monitors the storage capacity of the HDD 10 (23) while performing the data record operation. If the storage capacity of the HDD 10 is insufficient or exceeds an allowable storage capacity previously set during the data record operation, the microcomputer 12 controls the record/play system 11 to pause the data record operation and searches for the last play time information of the recorded programs stored in the memory 13 (24). The microcomputer 12 generates the deletion recommendation list having record program names and last play times in the order of the last play time and displays the deletion recommendation list on a screen of an external connection device such as a television such that the user can select and delete any one of the recorded programs (25).
When the user selects any one of the recorded programs, the microcomputer 12 controls the record/play system 11 to delete the recorded program which is selected, and then resumes the paused data record operation 27.
However, making the deletion recommendation list in the order of the last play time may not be suitable to the user. For example, when the content is a wedding video or a video of a birthday party for a one-year-old baby, which the user wants to store, the content must not be deleted only because the content was not played for a long time.
Alternatively, there is a method of automatically deleting content using information on whether the content is played or how many times the content is played. However, this method may be also unsuitable. For example, the user may watch a news program one time and delete the news program. However, since a music video might be repeatedly watched by the user, the music video must not be deleted.
Alternatively, there is a method of allowing a user to select any one of “unconditional storage”, “automatic deletion after watching”, “automatic deletion after a predetermined storage period”, and “unconditional deletion” options and managing the content according to the user's selection.
This method can prevent the content from being inadvertently deleted based on the user's intention, but is troublesome because the user must specify the management levels of the content. In addition, if the user selects the “unconditional storage” or “automatic deletion after watching” option, the content which can be deleted may not exist when any content must be deleted in order to ensure adequate storage space.
As the amount of content that can be stored in digital media devices has increased, the method of automatically selecting unnecessary content, displaying the unnecessary content to the user, and automatically deleting the unnecessary content has become very important. However, according to the prior art, desired content may be accidentally deleted and the user has to manage the content.